Hoodwinked

The rumors started flying in Friday night, that Bruce Gradkowski was starting at quarterback Sunday against the Dolphins. As the P.M. turned into the A.M., I started to realize that I and the other writers that cover Raiders had been played this week.

I don’t have any concrete proof yet, but I am pretty sure that the ProFootballTalk.com source is right about Gradkowski starting based on the events of the week.

We usually get the starting quarterback on Wednesday, but when Campbell wasn’t available we were told by the team that there was a scheduling issue because of the holiday week. Campbell also wasn’t available after practice Thursday.

Coach Tom Cable, who earlier in the week said Campbell was the starting quarterback — “There is no issue there,” he said — had some real vague answers on Friday:

Q: Are you worried about Jason being concerned about being removed from the game if things don’t go well early? He’s been benched twice during games, do you concern yourself with what he’s thinking in that regard?

Cable: “I’m not concerned about that right now.”

Q: It’s not a conversation that you would have with him?

Cable: “No, he and I, we talk all the time. We talk about a lot of things all the time. He is OK with where we’re going and what we’re doing and he understands it’s the job. It comes with it.”

Cable was also reportedly oddly vague in his Wednesday night Sirius NFL Radio appearance.

Reporters, meanwhile, caught up to Campbell after practice Friday — we thought he was the cheese at the end of the maze — and he answered questions in the same fashion Cable did:

Q: Do you feel a need to get off to a fast start personally? Is it in the back of your mind since they switched QBs twice that they could have a quick hook?

Campbell: “You know, we’re at home, and the main thing about it is we just need to bring the energy into our stadium, no matter what’s going on. I feel like, for the most part in this season, I had a pretty good year, and hey, we lost two tough games, but that happens. It happens. The main thing is you’ve to push forward and keep winning and understand we’re still in the fight. And we do have a very young football team so we’re building. It’s not something that’s already in place. We’re still building to get to where we want to go and I think it’s important for us to start fast in front of our home crowd.”

As far as the PFT source saying that Gradkowski took most of the first-team reps in practice, we wouldn’t know. Reporters are only allowed to watch the first 20 minutes of practice during the regular season, and usually the team is stretching during that period. We did see Campbell stay after practice and throw to tight end Zach Miller.

Why all the sleight of hand by the Raiders?

Maybe Cable thinks he’s pulling a fast one on the Dolphins. Or maybe he’s trying to assert to owner Al Davis that he knows what he’s doing in going with his guy Gradkowski. If that’s true, then it appears Cable did succumb to pressure from upstairs to start Campbell against Pittsburgh — even though he said he didn’t.

I know this, I will be asking Cable who the starting quarterback is every day after practice from now on.